houston press music awards … an outing

i wasn’t planning on going anywhere sunday. the intent was to stay home and clean, but when al called and reminded me of the hp awards going on, who was i to say no. i didn’t realize it was this weekend [even though i posted about it recently ... i hadn't really checked the dates, just voted online for my favorites]. i slept in then ran a few errands, then came home to clean and do some much needed laundry. i got a late start and missed nick’s set, but met up with colt and big al just as nick’s band, the umbrella man, had finished up. boo on me.

i had ran into jill and tolan just outside and greeted them with “you guys are EVERYWHERE!”. [they were both at the elder street gallery show and the hates cd release party i'd been to recently. i shouldn't really be surprised that i run into them. where will i see them next?]

al, colt and i headed over to the flying saucer and caught “scattered pages”. i’d never heard of them, but what a cool band. their voices are bigger than they are, so that was neat.

these were my gentleman escorts for the evening:

after an anchor steam, which went down great on a hot summer houston day, we headed over to notsuoh’s [a place i recall before downtown's revamp as an afterhours club that you had to climb through a window, maneuver through stacks of discarded furnishings in the dark to get to a rickety stairwell that led up to a dark den of musty old couches and funky low-fi music ... ah those were the days, it was like an old speak-easy. i didn't recognize the place now that it's "legit" ... and daytime.] the free radicals were playing there with harry sheppard on the vibes. i recall the first time i’d seen them, they played the “breaking chains” exhbit [my second showing of art] so many years ago. i had a good spot and took some photos [thanks to al for reminding me to capture some without a flash ... a hard thing to do, as i'm not all that familiar with the settings on the d-40, but after a bit of fiddling about, i managed to get some "not so blurry" ones":

after a couple of songs, we decided to head on over to venue and check out los skarnales. after all these years, the only person, it seems, to be the staple of the band is felipe [still awesome], but it was a nice surprise to see pat back at the drums. a guy on the street overheard our plans and asked if i would take his picture. [it's funny, since getting the camera, i've been accosted by strangers thinking i'm with some paper or website, and even when i explain these are my personal photos, they still want their photo taken. i won't even get into the number of other camera enthusiasts who begin to hit me with a barrage of questions about f stops and lenses. i just kind of stare at them and nod. :P] so here’s a fan photo:

a poorly focused one, at that.

we got to venue and this is what it looked like inside:

clearly a club atmosphere. nice place, but not my thing. the stage was way up high, i guess about 8 feet up. nice view, but intimidating, as i’m used to a more relaxed sort of thing where the band seems more accessible. i couldn’t get any good photos of pat or anyone who may be in the back. but i did get quite a few good shots. [still, fiddling around with settings, not sure if i could replicate them. call it dumb luck]:

after the set, we headed back to the flying saucer and caught the sideshow tramps. i’d never seen them before, just heard some of their stuff on myspace. what a powerhouse these boys were. when they did “john the revelator”, i almost wet my pants. big al said he wants to book them for his next crawfish boil. hopefully they’ll still be available then [and not to expensive]. but if they hit it big before then, well, it’s well deserved.

nick and paloma were there with mike, nick’s brother, who i haven’t seen in a while. everyone was having a great time [somewhere, somehow, a table got broken. the place was a mad house, the crowd was insane, fueled by heavy southern rhythms, a harmonica and dirty dirty bluegrass funk]

and then there was the ugliest shirt in the world … complete with a popped collar. oy.

this one gal was surfing the crowd. did it a few times … till they dropped her on her head. at one point, the band stopped and warned about “bodily injuries”.

i didn’t have much of a view, until this guy hit the crowd.

we headed back to my car and drove to the continental club where al had parked. it was a bit slow and some guy with a guitar was up playing. i didn’t get any pics of him nor did i get his name or the name of the band that came on afterward, which were pretty good. we ran into tricia and bill there [as we had throughout the evening]. it was a nice winddown to a hot sunday night with cool tunes and friends.